Lewis Hamilton showed his championship calibre by winning a thrilling Turkish Grand Prix and clinching his record matching seventh World Championship. The race had mixed conditions, with drivers starting on the wet tyre before moving onto the intermediate.
On any other surface, drivers would have gone onto the slick tyres. However, the running theme of the weekend was the slippery new tarmac around the Istanbul Park circuit. There were spectacular drives throughout the field, notably Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel who rounded off the podium.
Lewis Hamilton – 8.5
In wet qualifying, he nearly got eliminated in Q1, but by the end of Q3, he finished sixth, nearly five seconds off the pace. He was off the pace all weekend but Hamilton drove a spectacular race by keeping his nose clean of any danger. Hamilton won the race through his decision not to pit when his tyres looked to have lost their grip.
Embed from Getty ImagesValtteri Bottas – 3
This was a weekend to forget. Mercedes struggled in practice and Bottas qualified ninth. The race went from bad to worse, spinning six times during the race due to damage from the first lap. The final bit of misery was getting lapped by the Hamilton when Bottas needed to outscore Hamilton to keep his title hopes alive.
Max Verstappen – 6.5
Verstappen and Red Bull looked sure to win this race, they were comfortably the fastest car this weekend, but Verstappen missed pole by making a mistake on his final lap. The race should have been comfortable, but he struggled to get past Perez and spun out trying to overtake on the back straight, dangerously coming back into the line of other cars. He struggled on newer tyres, spinning once more before coming in sixth.
Alex Albon – 7
In qualifying he was the best of the runners not on the intermediate tyres, starting fourth. Albon was leading halfway into the race, with consecutive fastest laps. Poor tyre management led to a spin where there was nothing he could do. He finished seventh just behind his teammate. Overall, a good weekend for the Thai driver.
Charles Leclerc – 7
The Monegasque driver had a howler in qualifying, only managing a 14th place grid position. He came alive in the race to cut through the field to finish fourth. Leclerc was the guinea pig for most of the race, coming into the pits first on every occasion, with the crowd following. Clever strategy got him battling for second on the last lap, but going wide in the last corner dropped him to off the podium.
Sebastian Vettel – 8
Vettel qualified in 12th but made up for it with a tremendous start which catapulted him into third. Throughout the race, he drove perfectly with Verstappen and Hamilton unable to overtake for a large majority of the race. Looking set for a fourth position finish, he closed the gap to Perez and Leclerc in the last laps allowing him to capitalise on Leclerc’s mistake, sealing his first podium of 2020.
Embed from Getty ImagesCarlos Sainz – 7
It was a horrifying qualifying performance, finishing 13th and then penalised for holding up Perez. He more than made up for it in the race, again keeping himself out of danger to score much-needed points for the team.
Lando Norris – 7
Qualifying again was bad for the Briton, and the start was even worse finishing lap one in last place. However, a storming drive through the wet weather led him to finish P8, and with the fastest lap.
Daniel Ricciardo – 6.5
The Aussie qualified excellently in 5th but faded in the race. The Renault car never looked like it suited the drying conditions, but Ricciardo drove a lonely race to finish with a vital point in 10th.
Esteban Ocon – 6
Ocon qualified in 7th, and by turn one was up to P3 after a great start. Contact with his teammate sent him spinning and was at the back of the field for much of race playing catch up. He did well to recover to finish just outside the points.
Sergio Perez – 9
A terrific strategic call led to Perez qualifying on the inters, and he did a great job to qualify third. He ran for most of the race in second place, doing well to jump Verstappen at the start. As normal, he did well to keep his tyres alive for 48 laps, almost getting caught last lap, but re-overtaking Leclerc on the last corner to secure his first podium of 2020.
Lance Stroll – 8.5
The Canadian did an amazing job to land his first pole position and did everything right for the first half of the race, comfortably leading from the front. A strategic call to put on new tyres saw his downfall, with no heat or pace he dropped to ninth, when he should have been on the podium through no fault of his own.
Pierre Gasly – 5
It was nothing spectacular from the French driver. Having started at the back, it was a decent race to finish 13th, nothing noteworthy happened in his race.
Daniil Kvyat – 5
Much of the same with the other AlphaTauri driver, he made up a few positions during the race, but nothing happened during the race.
Kimi Raikkonen – 5.5
It was a sterling effort to drag his car to P8 in qualifying, however, he fell in the race having made three pitstops to finish 15th.
Antonio Giovinazzi – 4.5
Giovinazzi did a great job to get into Q3, one of his best qualifying results in his career. He made a calamitous mistake by spinning before getting to the grid before ultimately retiring on lap 11 with a gearbox issue.
Romain Grosjean – 3.5
He was unable to set a respectable time during qualifying having beached himself in the gravel. Otherwise, he would have been further up the grid. He languished at the back of the grid, before tangling with Nicholas Latifi. He retired soon after with heavy damage to his floor.
Kevin Magnussen – 3.5
Magnussen was close to getting out of Q3, but due to grid penalties started 13th. He was running an okay race before he pitted, his team failed to put all tyres on properly and he stopped at the end of the pitlane before getting wheeled back in the pits. He lost two laps during this, to ultimately finish 3 laps down.
George Russell – 3.5
Having started in the pitlane due to crashing before the race started, Williams made the call to put both drivers on the intermediate tyre. It was the wrong call, but at the crossover period, Russell was driving in 11th, a few seconds off points positions. He gambled putting new tyres on, which did not work out like many others.
Nicholas Latifi – 3
He beached his car during qualifying, and during the race was last for most of it before he tangled with Grosjean whilst letting leaders through. He retired afterwards with damage in which was a weekend to forget.
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